EF0 tornado in Mahoning County, Ohio

A brief EF-0 tornado with estimated peak winds of 80 mph occurred just east of Southern Park Mall in Boardman, OH based on video evidence and a NWS storm damage survey. The tornado began just east-southeast of the intersection of York Avenue and California Avenue, where a telephone pole was bent-over toward the north. As the tornado moved north-northeastward, it struck a strip mall building, where the awning and portion of the roof were ripped-off. The tornado also caused minor tree limb damage and blew-over a wooden fence before dissipating.

A surface cold front moved south-southeastward across Lake Erie and northern Ohio during the late morning through early evening of the 4th. Isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms occurred along and ahead of the front, within a humid warm sector comprised of weak to primarily moderate MUCAPE and moderate effective bulk shear. Radar data suggest the weak and brief tornado was spawned by a supercell after the northeastward-moving supercell experienced a constructive merger with a separate multicell thunderstorm moving north-northeastward during the early evening. Mixed layer LCL's were estimated to be near 500 to 750 meters AGL within the supercell's ambient environment, which were favorable for mesocyclonic tornadogenesis. Perhaps chaotic surface airflow associated with the merging convective cold pools enhanced low-level vertical wind shear and surface-based effective storm-relative helicity prior to tornado occurrence. The thunderstorms produced prolific rainfall rates of up to 6 per hour due to precipitable water values near 1.8 and efficient rainfall processes.